Movies

Séraphin: Un homme et son péché (Séraphin: Heart of Stone) (2003)

A lush, unspoiled setting, a heartless villain, a distressed heroine, and a sweet ending—director Charles Binamé's period drama is a fairy tale come to life. Séraphin Poudrier, mayor and village bully, demands pretty Donalda's hand in marriage as payment for a debt owed by her father. Séraphin dominates the entire 19th-century Quebec outpost of St. Adele until its people make their own demands.

L'Ange de Goudron (Tar Angel) (2001)

Days before receiving his citizenship papers, Algerian immigrant Ahmed Kasmi discovers that his 19-year-old son Hafid destroyed government files (a terrorist act) and disappeared into Northern Quebec. What follows is an hour and a half of raw emotion—fear, anger, bewilderment, persecution, and relief—as Ahmed charges the streets of Quebec in search of his son. Denis Chouinard's film offers a glimpse into modern Quebecois immigration issues.

Mon Oncle Antoine (1971)

This bittersweet comedy tells the coming-of-age tale of Benoît, a 15-year-old orphan who goes to live with a foster family in a cold, rural Quebec mining town one Christmas in the 1940s. As Benoît encounters adulthood—sex, death, and responsibility—the film explores the social conditions of old, conservative Quebec that led to the Quiet Revolution in the 60s, a period of rapid social and economic change.